Matthew 8:18-9

Jesus Is Revealed As Lord Over Nature, Lord Over The Spirit World, and Lord Over Sin and Forgiveness (8:18-9:9).

This subsection from Matthew 8:18 to Matthew 9:9 can be seen as united around a series of travel descriptions deliberately used in order to unite them together:

a It commences with Jesus command to go to the other side (Matthew 8:18)

b That is followed by their entering into a boat and setting sail (Matthew 8:23).

c They arrive at the other side (Matthew 8:28).

b They cross back over to His own city (Matthew 9:1).

a The subsection then ends with His ‘passing from there' (Matthew 9:9).

The whole subsection is probably brought together by Matthew in order to vividly portray the future for the followers of Christ. What follows will depict the problems and encouragements of discipleship. Having depicted how as the Suffering Servant Jesus has brought deliverance and healing for all who are unclean (Matthew 8:1), He now goes on to depict the future for those who will follow Him.

First we have the calling of disciples to follow Him with a warning of what the future holds for them of discomfort, sacrifice and self-dedication as they seek the way of eternal life through the Suffering Servant.

That is then followed by His entering a boat and their ‘following Him', which results in their experiencing the greatest storm that they had ever faced in their lives. This may be seen as an indication of the storms that lie ahead for the followers of Jesus, but with the promise that He will protect them from them. (It was only they who could expect special protection).

This is then followed by the recognition of the powerful spiritual forces that they will have to face in the future. They learn that not only will He keep them from the depths of the sea and from ‘perishing' (Matthew 8:25), but that through Him they need fear no forces of evil (Matthew 8:28). The authority of Jesus is more than sufficient to deal with all. Their spiritual adversaries, however, will not be so fortunate (Matthew 8:32). They will be driven into the sea from which Jesus had delivered His disciples, and will perish.

And then finally comes the indication of what the benefit is of following Him. He grants forgiveness of sins, and this is linked with the healings that He performs. He Who bore their sicknesses and carried their diseases (Matthew 8:17) has also come to bring the forgiveness of sins, a forgiveness linked with and demonstrated by those healings and His bearing of their afflictions and diseases, as well as their sins (Matthew 9:1).

And all this also reveals to the disciples their own future mission, that facing storms and spiritual forces of darkness, they too are to take out to men in His Name the forgiveness of sins (Matthew 9:6; compare Luke 24:47; John 20:23).

However, in the story of the paralytic another idea emerges, and that is the idea that while the men of faith (the paralytic and his bearers) experience forgiveness and healing, those deceived by Satan will arise in opposition to Jesus. The former will be thus be delivered, as the disciples had been, while the latter will finally perish along with the demons. We have here the first indication in Matthew of the opposition of the religious authorities of Judaism. This opposition must have come as something of a shock to the disciples. They had always been taught how godly these men were. And now they were learning differently, something which will come out further in Matthew 9:10. And meanwhile all this is finally sealed by the calling of Matthew (Matthew 9:9) so that he might have his part in it.

There are interesting connections between the initial account of the approach of the would be disciples, and the events that immediately followed. The Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head, and so when He snatches sleep it will be in the stern of a boat at sea. The dead are to be left to bury their dead, while the living who follow Him are to be delivered from death at sea, so as to be brought to recognise that they have eternal life.

Note that central to all these incidents is their arrival in Decapolis. It may be that we are to see from this sequence that Jesus had a specific aim in going to the other side, quite apart from just to avoid the crowds, namely to pin down a particularly dreadful manifestation of the power of the Devil, and to establish a preparatory witness in the area with the future in mind. (We can compare how He had previously established a preparatory ministry among the Samaritans - John 4:3). It is quite possible that news about these two demon-possessed people who were in such a dreadful condition had been brought to Jesus by Jews from Decapolis who had come to hear Him. The incident will also indicate that the Gentiles are not yet ready to receive Him. They cannot yet cope with His extraordinary powers. For originally it may well be that Jesus' aim had been to stay there much longer, ministering among the many Jews who were there.

A more in depth analysis of this subsection is as follows:

a Two would be disciples are challenged concerning the cost of following Him and He reveals Himself as the suffering SON OF MAN (Matthew 8:18).

b Jesus calms the Tempest and reveals His power over nature, resulting in His disciples marvelling, and calling Him ‘LORD', and saying ‘What manner of man is this?' They are delivered from the sea and from ‘perishing' even though their FAITH is little (Matthew 8:23).

c A host of devils who call Him THE SON OF GOD are cast out of two demoniacs, at which all the inhabitants in concert beg Him to leave. These demons are driven into the sea and do ‘perish' (Matthew 8:28).

b Jesus forgives the sins of a paralytic because of their FAITH and then heals him revealing that as the SON OF MAN He has the power on earth to forgive sins. This results in the crowds being filled with awe and glorifying God Who had given such power to men (Matthew 9:1)

a Jesus calls Matthew to follow Him, and Matthew immediately does so. (Matthew 9:9).

Note that in ‘a' two disciples are challenged to follow Jesus, and in the parallel one disciple is called and does follow Him. In ‘b' Jesus acts in such demonstrative power that His disciples marvel and ask what manner of MAN He is, and in the parallel He acts in such demonstrative power that the crowds give glory to God because He has given such power to MEN. Centrally in ‘c' we find the great expulsion of the demoniacs, and Jesus' own expulsion from Gentile territory.